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Responding to Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) Dennis Tan's questions on the National Arts Council's (NAC) withdrawal of funding for the book, "State of Emergency" by Jeremy Tiang, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu told parliament today that the book "did not meet the funding requirements mutually agreed upon as the content in the book deviated from the original proposal."

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Kudos to NCMP Dennis Tan Lip Fong for suggesting to build a better footpath for Bedok residents! Earlier, he raised the issue in Parliament to Minister Ng Chee Meng to widen the footpath along Bedok North Avenue 4. He proposed the idea after seeing that there are many pedestrians, cyclists and e-scooters there and saw the need to make things convenient for residents.

The improvement works, which have recently started, will include the area opposite St Anthony's Canossian Secondary School and Fengshan SMC. If completed, the footpath will be at least 2 times wider and will definitely add to a safer environment.

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The 9 NMP seats should be removed. Their performance in Parliament clearly demonstrated by the passage of the Administration of Justice Bill, shows that they are not just "duckweeds" but plastic, decorative flowers. Convert the NMP seats to NCMP seats and combine with the 3 existing NCMP seats to allocate a total of 12 seats without the present caps on the basis of opposition popular vote.

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Warmest greetings to all of you after returning from Bt Gombak stadium in the wee hours penning my thoughts, where I traveled from Marine Parade just to lend support to the SDP and its candidate, Dr Chee. Though the SDP lost in this by-election, I felt everything except despair especially after witnessing the conceding speech by the man himself. Even though majority of you remain confused over the smear campaign against Dr Chee and did not elect him but enough of you stood out and pressed the "reset" button to send a clear message! If the NCMP seat did not fall on Daniel Goh, it would have gone to Dr Chee!

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The recent NCMP debate in parliament was a win-win for both the WP and PAP. WP criticizes the NCMP scheme because it doesn't want voters to think that having NCMPs is enough. They succeeded in dampening the enthusiasm that came when the government announced the expansion of the NCMP scheme from 9 to 12 opposition best losers. By strongly criticizing the scheme and calling it "duckweed on a pond", Low has dampened the enthusiasm that the public felt about the loosening of PAP's grip in parliament.

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While the spirit of the NCMP scheme is to offer a seat in parliament to the best performing opposition candidate who lost, performance is relative. All else being equal, opposition performance should be better against a weaker PAP candidate like Charles Chong as compared to against stronger PAP candidates like Minister Lim Swee Say and Minister of State Lee Yi Shyan.

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Former MP for Punggol East, Ms Lee Li Lian, had lost her seat in last year's general elections to the PAP challenger Mr Charles Chong. As she had lost by the closest margin among opposition candidates, she was declared elected as a Non-Constituency MP (NCMP) by the Returning Officer.

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Last Friday marked the new chapter of our nation's 51st anniversary with the opening of the 13th Parliamentary session. Notably absent was the presence of 1 more NCMP which the PAP dominated parliament has blatantly refused to fill, going by the non-binding opinion of the AGC which the High Court has earlier ruled does not represent any interpretation of our laws!

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I was in Parliament this afternoon to clear my cupboard. This particular book was especially memorable. I delivered my maiden speech on this and although there were butterflies in my stomach, I was glad that I was able to speak up on this topic.